#kaijune 2023

[nazrigar]

Kaijune 2023: Extra Large Angelic Beings

So, far Kaijune, I’ve been drawing some updates to settings I haven’t drawn in a loooooong while.

In the universe of Pantheons, Angels and Gods exist alongside mortals, set in a distant far flung future. Among angels, Zaphkiel, lord of Ophanim (and an extreme doormat who’s too nice for his own good) is the biggest angel by a large margin.

Alongside mythology’s deities, so too are their monsters. The Chalkydri in particular are the only form of Angelic wildlife, as they are every bit as animalistic as one would see a tiger in the wild, but scaled FAR larger and made of the same star matter and hard light angels are.

[eternal-gromnommer]

In celebration of this year's Kaijune, I decided to re-watch Pacific Rim: Uprising to check if it really was as bad as everyone was claiming it was and I remember it being.

It...kinda was.

Heaps of wasted opportunities, character arcs that went nowhere, random pointless death of Mako Mori (boo!) and a whole new cast of teens who have little appeal and just rehash the story beats of the first film.

Which is a shame, because it did have a lot of cool ideas that could have been better-executed. Like the hybrid-drones, or Obsidian Fury, the kaiju-brain controlled Jaeger.

But by far the biggest wasted opportunity was the rather bland and underwhelming Mega Kaiju, which just looked like a bigger Kaiju with the component parts barely evident. So for Kaijune I whipped up a redesign of how I'd try to make it look more distinct and have the component parts accounted for.

Raijin, Hakuja and Shrikethorn remain mostly unchanged, just with more distinct palettes to highlight the patchwork nature of the fusion and with a reduced number of digits to make the fused limbs less cluttered.

The centerpiece of the Mega Kaiju head is Raijin's inner head, with Shrikethorn's inverted upper jaw now forming the lower jaw and Raijin and Shrikethorn's original lower jaws forming a "collar" around the neck. Hakuja's head is split entirely in half to form "horns" and the tusked lower jaw similarly bisected to form "mandibles". Raijin's four head-plates are all present, with the bottom two on the chest and the top two forming a crest atop the fused head. Ten eyes from Shrikethorn, six from Hakuja and sixteen from Raijin add up to a total of 32: way more than canon!Mega Kaiju's ten.

The redesigned Mega Kaiju also has eight limbs instead of six. The two main forearms are a fusion of Shrikethorn and Raijin's arms, while a smaller pair on the chest are Hakuja's intact frontmost limbs. The two pairs of hind legs are Hakuja's four back legs, with the middle pair fused to Raijin's legs and the back pair fused to Shrikethorn's legs. Hakuja's dorsal armor plates now stand up like spikes on the Mega Kaiju's back, and the tails are partly Raijin and partly Shrikethorn, with Hakuja armor plates forming spear-like tips.

And finally, as a stitched-together Frankensteined kaiju, the seams are still clearly visible, made from the ripper drones that tore apart the three components and sewed them up into one. The seams and stitches occasionally leak blue kaiju blood now and then: furthering the Mega Kaiju design as a mutilated, tortured monstrosity, clearly not designed to survive very long and merely live long enough to wreck its immediate foes, reach Mount Fuji, and jump inside to its death to fulfill the Precursors' master plan to trigger a massive eruption and cause a mass extinction event.

[neobiohazardus]

Kaijune 2023 - Day 30: Scour

Kaijune 2023 - Day 30: Mascot

Alright, the grand finale! This one took the most time to design for sure. Pretty proud of it actually. Here's a link to the prompt list I used this year

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Bio: Interrupting a kaiju attack in a heavily populated city in Canada, Kyphor appeared with a large, strange-looking kaiju in tow. Not doing anything themselves, this kaiju shot out a large beam of light towards the kaiju, atomizing it on the spot. Trucks soon appeared, having the same colour pattern as Kyphor and this strange kaiju. Modifying the gravity around the trucks, Kyphor lifted them into the air, allowing an armor-clad humanoid to get a high vantage point in order to announce their presence.

Calling their group "The Ascent", they spoke in a robotic voice towards the crowd that had gathered around the strange kaiju. Apparently being part of a defunct portion of the KDF, The Ascent say they helped them in designing their biomechanical kaiju named Ganis'i, and that their new design, "Scour", was a further improvement off of that. The Ascent espoused themselves as being the true scientific protectors of mankind, able to improve on all of the designs that came before, and urging people to join them.

After this showing, both Kyphor and Scour have been seen worldwide, sometimes hours apart on opposite sides of the globe. Further investigations into their inner workings have shown that their machines apparently use something they call "Royal Flesh", these apparently coming from the dead Cursed King kaiju that they've harvested (likely from the Seige Dragons), this flesh being easy to adhere to machinery and interfacing readily with any type of circuitry, additionally using titanima and the unnamed green crystals found on ancient machines.

Though The Ascent have gotten backlash for using Royal Flesh, material, the KDF have come under more fire for hiding their use of the material in their Ganis'i mech, the discourse erupting almost immediately after The Ascent's global debut.

The KDF have remained entirely silent after the incident, Eco-K being quite angry with The Ascent, as they dispatch kaiju without mercy or worry about the ecological role they might play, but this very efficacy has proven effective at garnering online fans of The Ascent.

[zelly-raptor]

23-24/06/2023: Kaijune 2023 day 11: Alternate Universe.

Continuing @kyleandhiscreations Kaijune prompt list here's my pic for Day 11 where the theme was "Alternate Universe".

Now I don't know what's happened but some how Jazzilla has ended up in a Rift between worlds, fighting 2 versions of himself from Alternate Universes.

On the Left we have Jezzilla standing at a similar height to Jazzilla (164ft Tall) and weigh's in at a some what lighter 1102 pounds

Jezzilla is alot more Agile than Jazz. He's also Immune to Fire, has bullet proof Skin, and can also leap to amazing heights of 350ft! Jezzilla can also disperse a powerful Jet of Fire from his Mouth known as the "Bunsen Blast".

Finally on the right we have Chibi Jazzilla. Hailing from a Universe where everything is small and Cute, Chibi stands at 10ft and weighs 1000lbs.

Chibi pretty much has the same abilities as Jazzilla so Fire breath, Smog emission from ears, Fire immunity you get the Idea.

[cinderbuck]

Kaijune, 2025.06.03

I planned ahead of time, yay. Today's prompt was "Forest Guardian", so first thing that came to mind was a troll. Not sure if a troll really qualifies as a Kaiju, but it's big and eats people, so it's close enough.

I didn't draw the traditional troll-tail, because it'd just look like a long schlong.

Based on a photo I took on my phone in 2023. Didn't spend as much time on this one as the others - just a little over an hour. I've been asked to illustrate a children's book, and I've been neglecting doing that for a while because of burnout, so I should probably get back to the book now.

Oh, and the prompt list I use is this one:

After I started I've seen a few different ones popping up here, but I had already started with this one, so it's the one I'll be sticking to.

[chromapede]

[OLD] Kaijune 2023, Days 21-30

[treebeef2]

Kaijune 2023 - Day 25 - "Spine"

[chorilate]

Kaijune 2023: Machine

[karenluk]

All my kaiju drawings for Kaijune 2023 in one post! Which one is your fave?

[connor-dioda]

Ugly Sonic finds a kindred spirit.

[eternal-gromnommer]

Just a little something since it's both Pride Month and Kaijune.

[neobiohazardus]

Kaijune 2023 - Day 25: Ranslouss

Kaijune 2023 - Day 25: Cloud

I knew I wanted to make a kaiju like this as soon as I added the cloud prompt. Here's a link to the prompt list if you want to follow along.

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Bio: Found in the skies above Malaysia, Ranslouss was not found by any larger organization, and was instead found by civilians during a normal flight.

One of the largest non-sessile kaiju, Ranslouss is one of a species, satellite imaging of the incident around Malaysia showing that the kaiju have been showing up in images since the satellites have been put into place, the kaiju easily blending into the clouds on the images. Further observation has found that they seem to subsist off of cloud-born planktonic organisms, and also off of whatever Phelstielle eats. Although their eyes are usually pointed down, Ranslouss will flip over when under Phelstielle, snapping at the bottom of their tendrils whenever they get the chance.

These observations have also confirmed that, rather than having invisible organs, the kaiju's organs have the same index of refraction as their translucent skin, giving them the appearance of being a hollow tube. The only actually clear part of the kaiju is its skull, where their eyes peek through their skin.

[titleknown]

KAIJUNE NEO: NEON TYGER

My name isn't really important. Well, not important to anyone reading this anyway.

Just know I was a homeless girl, and it was still better than the house I ran from. I once lived in a place that literally fell apart the moment I had to run from a police sweep. One time I got bitten by a water moccasin and had to bite the flesh of the wound out to keep it from spreading.

Not fun. But, then it happened. Like a Star of Bethlehem I saw it and like a falling star it hit me, and it... spoke to me. And it changed me, on the inside.

The men in the green suits took me right after. Compound was nicer than the streets. MREs were better than dumpster-burgers. Could have done without the interrogations. Or the tests. Or the fact that I couldn't leave. Or that they didn't treat me like a human being. I think they never asked my name. There's a lot of things I could've done without, really.

But it was there inside me. Speaking without words. It showed me things. Things beyond our mortal ken, from spaces before and beyond, only now beginning to show their face.

I'd seen inklings, bits of those things emerging, but that big picture, that huge, cosmic scope. It talked to me. It didn't want to talk to them. Said their hearts were too tainted or something. It's hard to paraphrase something that doesn't talk in words.

And then, one day, I got out. I think the men in the green coats said something about vivisection before it happened, something about "failure to co-operate." and the It didn't like that.

So for the first time, it changed me. I don't know how to describe it. Like, its that speaking-without-words thing, I think it'd sound like a porno if I tried. It was... visceral, powerful, amazing. I'll say that much.

And wouldn't you know it, something else broke out too when I did. Poor thing. there's a lot of pain in there. I'd feel sorry for it if it didn't want me and everyone else dead. Still kinda do, can't blame 'em.

I suppose I'm now some kind of messiah-thing, it calls itself a Space Queen, though it says it's a rough translation. Oh yeah, it's learning to talk with words. Given some time. It's not good at it, but it's nice to have a friend in my life.

It lets me wander around the globe, doing what I can, which is more than I thought but less than it'd hope, changing back to me-me to keep my head down. You can kinda tell it's changging me on the outside a bit, I think it called it "syncopation," it's mostly in the eyes.

I don't really need to eat anymore at least, so that helps if I'm getting the folks around me a burger I don't need. There's a lot of bad amongst the street-folk I'll admit, but there's a lot of good, and that's what keeps me going, I think that's what keeps it going too.

It's taught me to broadcast too. So, if you got lucky enough to see this before the men in the green suits come, now you know about the giant lady you keep seeing on the news punching bugs n such. Don't worry, they ain't got shit to track me. They ain't got shit to cage me.

If you see me up close, know I see you. I like you, mostly. But then run because you don't want to get in the middle of what I'm trying to pulsar at, or whatever the hell it calls it...

-Unknown radio/television broadcast, recieved by 50 million listeners in the area of Las Vegas, Nevada

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So, we have our Ultraman stand-in, Neon Tyger, named after the song by The Killers, which again, did inspire a lot of the tone of the story as well as the name.

I will add, while calling her a "space messiah" was meant as a bit of glibness on her part, akin to calling Superman Space Moses, friend of the blog @partlysmith did point out that does fit really well with Tsuburaya's whole thing of Christian symbolism with Ultraman, and I kinda realized after that the additional idea of her living amongst the homeless and marginalized while doing good is another parallel to good ol Oily Josh.

So yay, I was accidentally more clever than I thought!

Ability Notes: You know Ultraman? Basically, she does Ultraman stuff, albeit more Jack Kirby/70s psychedelic genre fiction + neon-related of course.

Bonus Trivia: The species of the "it" has different names depending on what gender of lifeform they're bonded with, Cosmic Men for male, Space Queens for female, and a whole host of esoteric ones for the other genders.

Also, the Cosmic Men have in fact shown up briefly once before in my work, and they're meant to be inspired by spacesuits, in the same way Ultraman is inspired by Grey Aliens!

And, in that grand (exceedingly late) Kaijune tradition, this character and all related narrative elements are under a CC-BY 4.0 license, as long as I, Thomas F Johnson, am credited as their creator.  

[zelly-raptor]

22/06/2023: Kaijune 2023 Day 10: Speedy.

"Hey Zelly! Have you seen The Flash Movie yet?". To which I answer Yes! And I thought It was good and not Terrible as I originally thought It was gonna be.

Back to Kaijune though ( yeah I'm still carrying on with It even If I am several days behind), here's my Kaiju creation "Velocitrixx" for Day 10 where the theme is "Speedy".

Velocitrixx comes from a Future where both Kaiju's and Humans coexist, Some Kaiju's have even shrunk down to Human size live amongst there fleshy brothers and sisters.

Velocitrixx is a Speedster Kaiju and can Run at Incredible Speeds. How fast exactly is Uncertain, thought It's clear that she can move forward and backwards though Time.

Running alongside Velocitrixx is "Mercury" Ill uh Talk about him some other time.

[louiejoyce]

Felt only natural to follow up Godzilla with… Gamera!!!

www.louiejoyce.com

[chromapede]

[OLD] Kaijune 2023, Days 11-20